Dr. Cynthia J. Arnson is director of the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Her most recent work has focused on democratic governance, conflict resolution, citizen security and organized crime, international relations, and U.S. policy in the Western hemisphere. Arnson is a member of the editorial advisory board of Foreign Affairs Latinoamérica, the Spanish-language edition of the distinguished journal Foreign Affairs. She is a member of the advisory boards of Human Rights Watch/Americas and the Social Science Research Council’s Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum. She served as associate director of the Americas division from 1990-1994, covering Central America and Colombia. In the early 1980s, as a consultant to Americas Watch, Arnson wrote many of the organization’s first reports on human rights conditions in El Salvador.

Arnson is the editor of In the Wake of War: Democratization and Internal Armed Conflict (Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Stanford University Press, 2012); and co-editor, with Carlos de la Torre, of Latin American Populism in the 21st Century (Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013). She is editor of Comparative Peace Processes in Latin America (Woodrow Wilson Center Press and Stanford University Press, 1999), co-editor (with I. William Zartman) of Rethinking the Economics of War: The Intersection of Need, Creed, and Greed (Woodrow Wilson Center Press and The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005), and author of Crossroads: Congress, the President, and Central America, 1976-1993 (2d ed., Penn State Press, 1993). Since joining the Wilson Center’s Latin American Program in 1994, she has written or edited scores of Woodrow Wilson Center publications on Colombia and the Andean region, Central America, Argentina, Venezuela, China-Latin American relations, citizen security and organized crime, energy, human rights, and U.S. policy in the Western hemisphere.

Arnson served as an assistant professor of international relations at American University's School of International Service, 1989-1991. As a foreign policy aide in the House of Representatives during the Carter and Reagan administrations, she participated in the national debates over U.S. policy and human rights in the Southern Cone and in Central America. Arnson graduated magna cum laude from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, and has an M.A. and Ph.D. in International Relations from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies.

Education

Ph.D., International Relations, and M.A., Latin American Studies, The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies; B.A., Government, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT

Subjects

Honors

American Fellow, American Association of University of Women Educational Foundation

Experience

Frequent writer and lecturer on Colombia and U.S. policy in Latin America; professor, American University; legislative assistant, U.S. House of Representatives; Associate Director, Human Rights Watch/Americas

Why are we still experiencing the kinds of migration and dysfunctional state institutions that we’ve been trying to fix since the 1980s? According to Cynthia Arnson and Eric Olson who each testified before the Senate this week, to be successful, the United States must address the most important drivers of this flow and focus on improving the quality of democratic governance, citizen security, and inclusive development in Central America. more

Cynthia J. Arnson, Director of the Latin American Program, joined a panel of experts in testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations to discuss the crisis in Central America and what's driving the exodus of unaccompanied minors. more

What are China’s economic, political, and strategic interests in the region? And while China is the most important Asian partner for many Latin American countries, how have relations with other Asian countries—India, South Korea, Japan—also broadened considerably? more

The Latin American Program's publication "Organized Crime in Central America" is referenced in this article about crime and violence in Central America and the treatment of migrants within the United States. more

Program Director Cynthia J. Arnson comments on the new ad campaign that is being implemented throughout Central America in an attempt to stop the influx of young migrants into the United States. The campaign aims to correct false rumors about immigration to the United States in hopes that fewer families will send their children across the border. more

This article looks at how U.S. congressional leaders plan to push back on efforts to normalize relations with Cuba. Program Director Cynthia Arnson is quoted on the resistance of lifting the embargo.
This article is in Spanish.

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On July 28, we bring to Washington top experts and policymakers from seminars in Colombia, Barbados, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and Peru, to further broaden the dialogue about climate adaptation and population dynamics in Latin America and the Caribbean; and to encourage the development of new policy and programmatic tools that help countries of the region meet the financial, organizational, and political challenges that climate change presents.

Citizen security practitioners from Antioquia, Colombia; Salta, Argentina; and Santiago, Chile will discuss the strategies they have employed, as well as the successes and ongoing challenges they face.

Throughout much of Latin America, the "golden years" of economic growth during the last decade's commodity boom have given way to economic decline or stagnation. At the same time, a mobilized citizenry is demanding better government performance. These two factors have focused unprecedented attention on rule of law deficits and official corruption. Meanwhile, relations among countries of the hemisphere have grown more complex. As much as the region has welcomed the normalization of U.S.-Cuban relations, the options for international insertion now extend far beyond the Western Hemisphere.

This teleconference call will discuss the impact on the politics and economy of Cuba and the regime’s motivation and strategy going forward. What are the benefits and risks of this policy shift? What is the relationship, if any, between economic incentives and a broader political opening? Why is the Cuban government interested in better relations with the United States? Join us BY PHONE as three U.S.-Cuba experts discuss what these policy changes will mean concretely for Cubans on the island.

What are China’s economic, political, and strategic interests in the region? And while China is the most important Asian partner for many Latin American countries, how have relations with other Asian countries—India, South Korea, Japan—also broadened considerably?

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This report explores the impact of China's growth on particular countries and on the region as a whole, the degree of partnership or competition with China, and the benefits as well as disadvantages of greater economic engagement between China and countries of the Western Hemisphere.

Based on presentations at a November 2006 workshop, this publication explores political trends and policy outcomes in eight countries and aims to understand why so many governments of the Left have come to power in Latin America at this moment in history and explores the impact of specific policies in the areas of social welfare, citizen participation, human rights, and foreign relations.

In July 2003, the government of President Álvaro Uribe took the unprecedented step of opening formal peace talks with the AUC. This publication is the collection of papers that resulted from a conference hosted by the Wilson Center to explore key issues in the Government-AUC peace talks, the prospects for an eventual negotiated settlement, and the key challenges ahead.

Presenting a carefully structured comparative analysis of six Latin American countries that experienced guerilla warfare that outlasted the end of the cold war, this volume explores the unique constellation of national and international events that allowed some wars to end in negotiated settlement, one to end in virtual defeat of the insurgents, and others to rage on.

This report, based on a conference organized by the Latin American Program and the Brazil Institute, summarizes the multiple and complex perceptions held by Brazilians as well as a host of other countries in the region regarding Brazil's "emergence" as a regional and global power.

Efforts to bring Colombia's long-running internal armed conflict to an end through political negotiations continued to face major obstacles in 2006. This document reviews the major events in the peace process between Colombia's three main paramilitary groups (the FARC, the ELN, and the AUC) and the Colombian government.

On December 4, 2003, the Latin American Program and the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales co-sponsored a second conference on "Argentina-United States Bilateral Relations: An Historical Perspective and Future Challenges," held at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina. This book contains an edited version of the panelists' presentations.

This is a report of a conference held in Santiago, Chile. The December 2008 conference, "Pobreza, desigualdad, y la 'nueva izquierda' en America Latina," included participants from eight countries who explored trends in poverty and inequality under social democratic and populist left governments.

The Mexican facilitator in the ELN peace talks, Ambassador Andrés Valencia, spoke at an off-the-record session on June 21, 2005. This document constitutes Ambassador Valencia's account of the attempt to arrange a meeting between ELN military leaders and the Mexican facilitating team, an attempt that ended in failure.

Cynthia J. Arnson is director of the Latin American Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Robert S. Litwak is Vice President for Programs and Director of International Security Studies at the Wilson Center